I think most of uncommon 2d-only PCI cards are useless or less useful now. Rare ones? It's difficult to define without any statistics. Maybe such as:
SIS 6202, 6205
Acer ALiCat I, ALiCat II, ALiCat III
Alliance ProMotion AT25
OPTi 92C178, 82C264
Western Digital WD9710 MZ
There are also rare late S3 cards with DirectX 9,10, and 10.1 support.

In this case, let's say as in you can barely find a picture of it. "Obscure" would be a better word.

It doesn't have to be 2D only, although 3D cards are not that obscure.

Some rare video cards that I know:

• PCI versions of the S3 ViRGE/GX2, Trio3D and Trio3D/2X. The AGP ones are very common to find.
• Cirrus Logic GD-5480.

Of these, I managed to get the S3 Trio3D/2X, which are usually uninteresting for Windows but comes with VBE 2.0 onboard and has an insane amount of VESA video modes.

These are my rare PCI cards:

Stb Kyro 1 PCI (Hercules 3D Prophet 4000xt)
Avance Logic ALG2301
ARK Logic ARK2000 (Hercules Stingray 64)
Oak OTI 64111 Spitfire
Trident TGUI9680
Alliance ProMotion 6410

I have plenty of S3 cards, Cirrus Logic cards, ATI cards and Matrox cards so the above ones are pretty rare I guess.

Alliance ProMotion

pc-sound-legacy wrote on 2024-02-03, 18:20:

These are my rare PCI cards: […]
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These are my rare PCI cards:

Stb Kyro 1 PCI (Hercules 3D Prophet 4000xt)
Avance Logic ALG2301
ARK Logic ARK2000 (Hercules Stingray 64)
Oak OTI 64111 Spitfire
Trident TGUI9680
Alliance ProMotion 6410

I have plenty of S3 cards, Cirrus Logic cards, ATI cards and Matrox cards so the above ones are pretty rare I guess.

Can you please post a full picture of the Hercules Stingray 64?

@CoffeeOne sure

Check out my list on vgamuseum.info but I am most proud of the Winbond W9970CF and Brooktree BtV2115.

But funny you mention the SiS 6025 because I just got one from Brazil and will post it on vgamuseum.info soon (still in the box so not on vogons new parts thread yet).

Thank you every one for posting these, but let's limit it to the cards that are really obscure, where they are not on vgamuseum and you also can't find proper pictures of them anywhere.

demiurge wrote on 2024-02-03, 20:34:

But funny you mention the SiS 6025 because I just got one from Brazil and will post it on vgamuseum.info soon (still in the box so not on vogons new parts thread yet).

Now that's something. I wonder if some cards were more popular in certain regions.

I must admit I didn't know about a newly found parts thread on vogons. Which one is it?

EDIT: Wait, do you mean this? Bought these (retro) hardware today
If so, yea, I know that one. I thought there's a hardware discovery thread I missed.

pc-sound-legacy wrote on 2024-02-03, 19:39:

@CoffeeOne sure

Ha, that's a different revision from the one on vgamuseum. What does it say on the back?

EDIT: Found one here: https://www.odkarla.cz/graficka-karta-hercule … stingray-64-pci

It's the same B revision. It's possible the socketed memory variants are serial based.

EDIT2: and one here: https://www.recycledgoods.com/hercules-stingr … pci-video-card/

eddman wrote on 2024-02-03, 20:54:

Thanks you every one for posting these, but let's limit it to the cards that are really obscure, where they are not on vgamuseum and you can't find proper pictures of them anywhere.

Well that excludes me by default 'cause all my cards are up there.

eddman wrote on 2024-02-03, 20:54:

Now that's something. I wonder if some cards were more popular in certain regions.

Yes, some were limited to certain areas. I know of some that only got a European release: Avance Logic ALG2564; one that got only a Brazilian one: ThinNetworks TN502; and I am pretty sure that the two I mentioned in last post were China or Taiwan exclusive.

eddman wrote on 2024-02-03, 20:54:

I must admit I didn't know about a newly found parts thread on vogons. Which one is it?

EDIT: Wait, do you mean this? Bought these (retro) hardware today
If so, yea, I know that one. I thought there's a hardware discovery thread I missed.

Yeah I meant that one.

pc-sound-legacy wrote on 2024-02-03, 19:39:

@CoffeeOne sure

Thx. Very nice looking card, I assume it came from the factory with 2MB, because all the RAM chips are the exact same type.

Do S3 Trios equipped with 4mb of vram count?

Well I will list the chipsets that I am still trying to get for vgamuseum:

• Chips B68554
• NetVision 2200i (Artist 3GA)
• OAK OTI64217
• Cyberpro 2010
• Almost anything in the S3 Chrome series
• Avance Logic ALG2564
• Trident Cyber9385-1
• Trident 9970 Blade T64
• iXMicro TwinTurbo 128P8
• Macronix MX86202
• Winbond W9971CF
• ARK2000MI

Some of those are not that obscure since they are listed (EDIT: have board pictures) on other websites.

eddman wrote on 2024-02-04, 13:27:

Some of those are not that obscure since they are listed on other websites.

Listed on a website doesn’t make something not obscure.

Many websites for example acknowledge the Volari V8 Duo, however I challenge you to find one. I’ve never seen one in the flesh.

I already explained up the thread that I mean cards that you cannot even find pictures of (or are very low quality like the 6225 in the OP), not necessarily something that you haven't personally seen.

I also wouldn't call that volari uninteresting.

EDIT: Actually found some good 6225 pictures.

One of the obscure would be S3 Virge GX2 PCI.

All these video cards are so cool. I really like that period about the cheap 2D alternative solutions with so many companies building such cards.